Welcome to Form Live. I'm Tim Gray, President of the Augustine Institute.

And joining me is Dr. Michael Barber, who's a professor of Scripture here at the August Institute.

So it's a joy.

You know, on Wednesdays, Michael and I are going to be doing this Bible study on Matthew that you get to join.

And so just grab a Bible and open up with us.

We're using, of course, the Augustine Bible, which is the ESV Catholic Edition.

And so you know what translation we're working from. We're using, of course, the Augustine Bible, which is the ESV Catholic Edition.

And so you know what translation we're working from.

And we left off last time in Chapter 2 of the Gospel of Matthew.

Now we're going to jump in to Chapter 3 with John the Baptist, this incredible and interesting figure,

and Jesus' baptism.

So, Michael, when I jump right in, and of course, you know, we're told right away that, you know, in those days, John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of

Judea. So we get his message of repent. So we get John the Baptist, and I think it's important

for people to remember that he's a prophet and he has a prophetic vocation and he's calling Israel to repentance and they come down to the Jordan River where he's preaching and where he's baptizing. And that's an interesting location to be in the Judean wilderness because, you know, I know you've been with me in Israel. You know, if you're up in Jerusalem, you're up in Bethlehem, it's pleasant. But when you go

down into the Judean wilderness, it is a wilderness. It's stark, it's barren, and worst of all,

it's extraordinarily hot. And, you know, usually 110, 120 degrees is fairly normal in the

Judean wilderness. And so... And that big bag with me when I was with you.

That was tough walking through the wilderness with that.

Yeah, you break a sweat pretty fast with that, don't you?

You do sweat with that.

But I think the point is going out into the wilderness is an expression of a commitment to

do penance, right?

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